Pride in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

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Recommended: Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the main character, Okonkwo, has a lot of pride. There is a well-known aphorism, ?Pride goes before a fall.? Through Okonkwo?s hard work, he became a great man, with a sense of pride and haughtiness. He then suffered a loss of pride, which ultimately led to his down fall and even his suicide. So, through Okonkwo?s actions, Achebe suggests that excessive pride can lead to down fall. For my first point, I am going to start with a joke: ?One day there was an airplane flying Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bill (a kid), and Billy Gram. Something went wrong with the plane, and so it had to be abandoned. The pilot strapped on a parachute and said to the passengers, ?There are only four parachutes, and I am taking one.? Bill Clinton grabbed the second and said, ?I am the most important man, and my country needs me, so I am taking one, too.? Then, Bill Gates grabbed the third one and said, ?I am the smartest man in the world, and my people need me.? After Bill Gates left, Bill (the kid) was just looking at the last parachute, when Billy Gram said, ?I am old and you are young, and you have your whole life ahead of you, so take the last parachute.? After a little while, Bill looked up at Billy Gram and said, ?I was not thinking about that, it is just that the smartest man took my back pack.? As you saw from the joke and the book, both Okonkwo and Bill Gates were full of prejudice pride. Both thought they were great men, and saw others as inferior compared to them. But their pride led to their destruction. Second, Okonkwo?s pride was greatly bruised while attending a great warrior?s funeral, named Ezeudu. It was when ?Darkness was around the corner? (page 124), when Okonkwo?s life took a sharp turn down hill. ?Guns fired the last salute and the cannon rent the sky. And then from the center of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. It was as if a spell had been cast. All was silent. In the center of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead man?s sixteen-year-old son, who with his brothers and half-brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father.

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